Chapter 526: Silas Graves [Bonus - ]

Chapter 526: Silas Graves [Bonus Chapter]

Alexander blinked, caught off guard. "What?"

"The bet," she repeated, her voice sounding steady. "Five beasts. I survived all five without asking for the barrier and you swore upon your honor as Crown Prince that you would grant me one personal favor... Anything within your authority."

Alexander’s expression hardened, his lip curling into a haughty dismissive sneer.

"Fine. A deal is a deal. What do you want? A private estate in the southern provinces? A larger budget allocation for your wardrobe? A personal escort detachment so you don’t embarrass the family again?"

Aki took half a step closer.

She looked him dead in the eyes, her voice ringing clear and loud across the empty blood-stained arena.

"My wish... is for you to fuck out of my life."

Alexander froze.

His blue eyes snapped wide, his breath catching in his throat as if he had been struck across the sternum with an iron hammer.

In all their twenty-five years, through every reprimand, every scolding, and every quiet evening in the imperial palace, he had never heard her raise her voice, let alone speak a single syllable of profanity.

"What did you just say to me...?" Alexander whispered, his voice trembling.

"You heard me," Aki said, her expression sounding deadpan with her chin held high. "I don’t want your money... I don’t want your guards... And I really, truly do not want to see your face for the foreseeable future. Leave my suite. Leave my staff alone and don’t ever darken my doorway again."

Without waiting for him to reply, without checking to see his reaction, and without offering the customary courtly bow, Aki turned on her heel.

She walked straight past the dead monsters toward the staging exit, her boots clicking against the concrete floor.

As she crossed the threshold into the equipment bay, she reached beneath her shredded cloak, pulling her private comm device from her pocket and dialing with a flick of her thumb.

"Mira," Aki spoke into the receiver, her tone becoming calm as the airlock doors began to close behind her. "Have the transport ready at the lower bay and have the bath refilled. I smell like lizard blood, and I need a fresh dress."

The doors slammed shut with a final clang, cutting off her footsteps and in the center of Arena Seven, Alexander remained standing motionless amidst the gore.

The two guards who had followed him down stood frozen near the wall, their eyes glued to the floor, terrified to even draw breath in the presence of the Crown Prince’s utter humiliation.

The arena lights buzzed, casting a harsh white glare over the dead beasts and the puddles of drying blood.

Alexander stared at the closed steel doors where his sister had vanished.

His chest felt strangely hollow.

A tight suffocating constriction clamped around his throat, thicker and heavier than any spiritual suppression field he had ever encountered on the battlefield.

’Fuck out of my life...’

The words echoed off the concrete walls of his mind, ringing with a finality that made his ribs ache.

Then, a sudden warm wetness tracked slowly down his left cheek.

DRIP!

A single solitary tear slipped from the corner of his eye, sliding down his pale jaw and falling into the open air.

It struck the concrete floor between his boots with a microscopic hiss and because of the boiling heat of his high-tier Purple Core, the droplet instantly flashed into a tiny wisp of white steam, vanishing into nothingness.

Alexander slowly raised his leather-gloved hand to his face with his fingers touching the damp trail beneath his eye.

He stared at the moisture on his leather glove as his breath hitched and his mind went completely blank.

’Why...?’

The Crown Prince of the World swallowed hard, staring at the empty floor in the lightless basement.

’Why am I crying...?’

...

The damp chill of the parking concourse clung to the concrete like oil.

Aki stood on the raised curb three paces beyond the threshold of Arena Seven’s heavy security airlock.

The overhead sodium lamps hummed with a low drone, flickering every few seconds against the soot-stained exhaust flues.

"Haaaa... I want to go home..." Aki muttered. ’Or Blessed Land... I wouldn’t mind either way.’

She wanted to go to Blessed Land more though but Thor wasn’t going to be here for a while and there was no guarantee that Thor would agree to carry her a second time.

’Especially if she doesn’t want to...’

Aki could always bribe her with more food though.

Beneath the hem of her oversized charcoal traveling mantle, her hands hung relaxed at her sides.

Her left forearm knitted shut and purged of poison by Alexander’s lilac healing mana throbbed with a dull phantom heat, like an iron nail tapped lightly against marrow.

’Big Brother didn’t even heal me completely...’

She drew in a slow deep breath through her nose as the air down here tasted of diesel exhaust.

It was ugly yet, standing on the curb, watching the condensation bead along the yellow hazard lines of the concrete floor, an odd sensation bloomed behind her ribs.

’I told him to get out,’ she thought.

The realization sat in her chest like an unswallowed stone.

A small cold pang of guilt brushed against the base of her throat, cultivated across twenty-five years of being taught that an Unawakened scion’s entire purpose was to absorb the tempers of her superiors with downcast eyes and folded wrists.

Alexander was her elder brother, he held an active Purple Core and he commanded battalions across the Sovereign Realm.

In the grand architectural registry of the world, his blood was gold and hers was water.

...And she had looked him dead in his eyes and told him to fuck out of her life.

Her lips twitched as the pang of guilt flared, flickered, and was promptly smothered by an overwhelming surge of pure electric triumph.

’I did it.’

The heavy thud of combat boots broke her reverie.

Emerging from the security vestibule, Alexander strode into the harsh sodium light.

His matte-black greatcoat was buttoned to the chin, his posture rigid as a spear, but the easy suffocating arrogance that usually trailed his heels was absent.

He did not look at the armored retainers who fell into step behind him and he did not issue orders to the facility guards who stood bowed at ninety-degree angles along the wall.

He walked straight toward the idling limousine waiting in the VIP lane.

As he passed Aki, his pace hitched for a fraction of a second.

His blue eyes... the same shade as hers flicked toward her shoulder but he didn’t speak.

His jaw worked once with the teeth grinding behind pale lips, and his right hand curled into a fist so tight the reinforced leather of his glove creaked under the strain.

He tore his eyes away, ducked his head, and stepped into the rear compartment of the vehicle.

THUD!

The reinforced door slammed shut with a pressurized seal as the engine let out a low hum, and the limousine accelerated into the exit tunnel with its tires hissing against the slick pavement as its red taillights were swallowed by the gloom.

Aki watched the red glare fade, exhaling a thin cloud of mist into the chill.

SKRRRR!

A sleek silver-white luxury car glided smoothly around the eastern ramp, coming to a halt directly beside the curb where she stood.

The tinted rear passenger window slid down with a whisper of hydraulics, revealing the pale anxious face of her personal maid.

"Your Highness!" Mira gasped, her hands trembling as she unlocked the door. "Praise the heavens! Please, get in before the security drones flag the curb!"

Aki stepped down from the concrete ledge, ducked into the warm leather-scented cabin, and let the door pull itself shut with a muted click.

"Drive, Mira," Aki said softly, resting her head back against the plush synth-suede headrest. "Take the elevated bypass. I don’t want to sit in traffic at all."

"Right away, Highness!"

The car hummed to life, banking smoothly out of the underground complex and ascending the helix ramp toward the street level.

As they cleared the tunnel threshold and broke onto the high viaduct, the sky opened up.

Rain began to fall across Rhyx City... thick sheets of water that drummed relentlessly against the reinforced polycarbonate windshield.

Below the viaduct, the neon sprawl of the middle sectors smeared into blurry ribbons of electric cyan, harsh magenta, and rain-slicked asphalt.

Aki sat back, lifting her left hand to rest against the cool glass of the window.

She looked down at her fingers, curling them slowly into a fist.

’He thought I would cry,’ she mused, watching a rivulet of rainwater race across the exterior glass. ’He thought the smell of blood would make me vomit... Big Brother probably thought I’d curl into a ball on the floor and beg him to save me so he could hold the arranged marriage over my head like a leash.’

A soft, genuine laugh slipped from her throat.

It was quiet at first, barely a breath against the hum of the engine, but it grew into a bright clear chuckle that made Mira glance nervously into the rearview mirror.

"Highness?" Mira ventured cautiously, her knuckles white on the steering wheel. "Are... are you well? The Crown Prince looked... terrifying when he passed through the lower security checkpoint."

"I am better than well, Mira," Aki murmured, her azure eyes dancing with dark amusement. "I have never been more awake in my life."

She was beginning to act like Brida a bit but Aki didn’t hate it, she wanted to be half as confident as that woman.

The town car carved through the downpour, ascending the sweeping spirals of the upper tier where the rain-scrubbed glass towers of the high nobility pierced the lower clouds.

Within twenty minutes, the vehicle pulled into the private garage of her residential tower as the hydraulic security gates clanged shut behind them, sealing out the noise of the metropolis.

The elevator ride to the penthouse was silent.

The moment the private foyer doors parted, four senior security maids rushed forward with warm towels, silk wraps, and silver trays laden with restorative tonics.

"Highness! The bath has been drawn with crushed white lotus and eucalyptus!"

"We have prepared the evening tea—"

"Your gown is ruined, Highness, allow us to take the mantle—"

"Leave the towels," Aki commanded, stepping past them without breaking stride. "All of you, out of the bedchamber."

"B-But Highness—"

"Out," She repeated coldly.

The maids froze, exchanging wide-eyed terrified glances, before bowing deeply and retreating through the foyer double doors.

Left alone in the quiet expanse of her suite, Aki walked straight to the vanity room.

She stripped off the blood-spattered charcoal traveling cloak, unhooked the ruined, bile-stained wool tunic, and tossed them into the incinerator chute without a second thought then she kicked off her scuffed silk slippers, leaving them where they fell on the white marble floor.

"Finally... Some alone time..." Aki muttered, she never realized how much she would miss it.

She reached into her wardrobe, pulling out an oversized, soft charcoal-gray cotton shirt... a garment that reached past her mid-thighs, comfortable, loose, and completely lacking any sort of crests or stiff bone stays.

She pulled it over her head, shaking her long blue hair free so it tumbled in damp wild waves over her shoulders and then she caught her reflection in the full-length mirror.

Her collarbones were bare, save for the whisper-thin chain of dark star-iron resting against her skin.

The five uncut mana diamonds caught the recessed lighting, shimmering with azure, violet, and amber hues.

’I wonder can I draw mana from them...?’

Well she really didn’t know the first thing about Mana Gathering though.

She walked to the adjoining sitting room and tapped the intercom on the mahogany desk.

"Mira... Bring the terminal."

Five seconds later, the side door clicked open. Mira slipped in quietly, carrying a sleek slate-black encrypted financial tablet with her head respectfully bowed.

"Set it on the desk and take a seat," Aki instructed, walking over and leaning against the heavy wood.

Mira set the tablet down, perching nervously on the edge of the leather chair.

"Highness... if this is regarding the quarterly household audit—"

"It isn’t," Aki cut in, tapping the screen with her thumb to unlock the biometric password. "Log into the third offshore shell account... the one registered under the maritime trading dummy firm in the southern free ports."

Mira blinked, her brow furrowing in confusion. "The private trust? Highness, that ledger is only utilized for emergency capital reserves. The interest yield alone—"

"Open it," Aki said, her voice leaving no room for argument. "We are executing a transfer."

"A... a transfer?" Mira’s fingers flew across the interface, entering the twenty-four-digit encryption cipher.

The screen flashed emerald green, displaying a balance that stretched across nine digits. "How much are we allocating, Your Highness?"

"Twenty million Spirit Credits."

Mira’s hands froze over the screen.

Her jaw slowly dropped, her eyes bulging as she stared at the royal scion.

"T-Twenty million?! Highness! That is equivalent to the annual operating budget of a Level 30 Lord legion! Who could possibly require an offshore liquidity transfer of that scale?!"

"A debt," Aki replied smoothly, crossing her arms over her chest. "Room, board, and security fees."

’And worth every single cent,’ she added silently, remembering the roasted meat, the warm laughter around the fire, and the sight of Thor batting her playfully across the shoulders.

Mira swallowed hard, her chest heaving as she pulled up the transfer.

"I... understand. Please dictate the recipient’s institutional routing code and account registry."

Aki recited the twelve-digit alphanumeric string effortlessly.

She had repeated it in her head like a prayer every hour since stepping out of the Keep’s gates.

’4-7-B-9-0-X-1-1-4-K-R-8.’

Mira typed the characters into the prompt.

The financial network of the central banking system processed the request with the progress bar sweeping across the interface.

BEEP!

A secondary window popped up on the high-resolution display, presenting the verified clearinghouse node and the registered legal identity attached to the recipient’s ledger.

"The routing is verified through the Valoria Bank," Mira said, squinting at the screen as she tilted the tablet slightly with her eyes widening as she read the owner’s name aloud.

"Registered recipient... Silas Graves."

The room fell quiet, save for the rain drumming against the balcony glass.

Aki stood still.

’Silas Graves.’

The name washed over her mind like cool spring water.